Photocatalytic Activity of Ba-Doped BiFeO3 Nanoparticles

In this work, nanopowders of the Bi_1 − xBa_xFeO₃ system (x = 0, 0.10, 0.20) were synthesized by the combustion method of nitrate-organic precursors. The effect of doping bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃) with barium (Ba) ions on the morphology, crystal structure, and photocatalytic activity of the material was studied. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that all samples crystallize into a rhombohedrally distorted perovskite structure with the R3c space group. Doping with barium led to a significant decrease in the crystallite sizes, as well as to a distortion of the crystal lattice. In the case of 20% substitution, the formation of BaCO₃ impurity was observed, which was also confirmed by the analysis of the Raman spectra. It was shown that the introduction of barium leads to the formation of a more porous texture and a significant increase in the specific surface area of the material. The original BiFeO₃ demonstrated an extremely low efficiency of methylene blue decomposition relative to photolysis, while doping with barium led to a significant improvement in the photocatalytic characteristics of the material: in the case of 20% Ba substitution, the decomposition of methylene blue reached 99% in 1 h.